Saint Mary Events

Saint Mary’s calendar is local, agricultural and tied to the national holidays.

Tacky Day — Easter Monday, Port Maria

The parish’s own commemoration of Tacky’s Revolt, which began at the Fort Haldane barracks above Port Maria on Easter Monday 1760 and grew into the most serious uprising of enslaved people in eighteenth-century Jamaica. The day is marked at the Tacky monument by the old courthouse with wreath-laying, drumming, speeches and readings, alongside a community fair, and it has grown in prominence as the revolt has been reassessed from a colonial footnote into a founding act of Jamaican resistance. It is a local occasion rather than a tourist one, and attending respectfully is welcomed.

Emancipation and Independence — 1 and 6 August

Observed across the parish with church services, community events, beach parties and family gatherings; the week between the two is the busiest of the year.

Agricultural shows — through the year

Denbigh is the national one, but the parish holds its own produce and livestock shows, which are a good way to see the farming culture that still defines Saint Mary.

Port Maria and Oracabessa community events — through the year

Small fishing tournaments, beach parties at the public beach, and occasional concerts at the bay, announced locally and usually at a week’s notice.

Christmas and Jonkanoo — December

Masked street processions with drum and fife survive in the country districts, appearing without much announcement in the days around Christmas and Boxing Day. Alongside them the parish keeps the ordinary Jamaican Christmas: sorrel brewed in every house, grand markets held late into the night on Christmas Eve, and church on the morning itself.